


Home Isn't a Place

by bigbilliamdenbro



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Dead Georgie Denbrough, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Heartbreak, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Love Rosie AU, M/M, Making Out, Miscommunication, Other, Pining, Underage Drinking, many aspects of the story are changed, mentions of sex but no sex scenes, there will most likely be some random ocs along throughout the fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2019-08-16 22:01:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16503515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigbilliamdenbro/pseuds/bigbilliamdenbro
Summary: Love always finds its place, eventually, even if there are obstacles on the way.And in Bill Denbrough and Stanley Uris' case, well, let's just say there were many of those.Or, the Love, Rosie inspired AU no one really asked for but I wrote anyways.





	1. Eighteen

**[Derry, Maine. Bill Denbrough’s 18th birthday. 11:38 PM]**

Bill and Stan stood in the front of someone’s (they spent the whole way there debating over whether his name was Zack, as Bill claimed, or Dylan, as Stan stubbornly stated -they later found out his name was John) place, where, just like they had heard from a few people at school, there was a party going on. From the sidewalk, they could already hear the baffled sound of the absurdly loud music playing on the inside, and see some way-too-drunk people getting even more wasted than they already were in the front yard, as many more people than they thought could actually fit into the house were getting inside.

Bill had had a lot of trouble bringing Stan there, not because Stan doesn’t like parties but because he is “the only one of the two who’s actually reasonable over the terrible possibilities of how this night could end”, as he stated himself.

But Bill knew him well enough to know that with just a little convincing Stan would always agree on going, and actually have a good time, despite the various complains he’d make throughout the night, but that was something he was way past used to by then.

“Cuh-come on Stan, It’ll be fuh-fun!”

“It’s your birthday! We should be celebrating it tonight, not going to some highschool kid’s party that consists on alcohol, weed and vomit everywhere!”

“You forgot the ‘people muh-making out everywhere p-possible’ part,” Bill added, sarcastically.

Stan just rolled his eyes at the comment.

“You’re being d-dramatic. And this is how were s-s-celebrating!”

“Okay but what if the police comes in? Were only eighteen! And what about the drugs, huh, Bill?”

“Stan. Cah-calm down. We’re gonna be fuh-fuh-fine. You s-say that before every puh-party we go to.”

“Maybe because I actually think before I do things?”

“Come on, you gotta re-relax a little. Don’t stuh-stuh-stress because of this. We don’t have to do any-th-thing. Let’s just go in and s-see how it is, okay? If you still wanna go huh-home in a f-few we’ll go.”

“Maybe you’re right, okay. But if shit happens you dragged me here,” Stan said, finally giving in after the usual banter like it always happened, trying unsuccessfully to fight a grin.

“Whatever you say.”

They walked together, making their way through the crowd of people by the front door and inside the house, that was, as expected, awfully crowded itself. They knew some of them from a few classes they had in common, but they doubted there were only people from their high school there, since, besides these few random people, they couldn’t recognise anyone else.

They walked around for a bit, never leaving each other’s side, and Bill grabbed the two of them cups that contained some drink none of them could really place what was, and sat by the kitchen, which they really should have thought more about, because the kitchen happened to be where pretty much all the alcohol was.

Many drinks downed by the both of them later (Bill had taken what Stan had said about them having to celebrate his birthday somehow too seriously, and had drunk, well, a bit more than he usually did, which meant he was absolutely and completely wasted despite not having drunk what one would consider all that much, and Stan didn’t really need many drinks to get tipsy), they were both out of their senses enough that they didn’t really think about what they were doing.

And, as Stan was saying something Bill didn't really register, Bill could only focus on his lips. It wasn't intentional, mind you, but he just couldn't stop looking at the way Stan’s lips moved as he talked about whatever he had been on about, and he couldn't help but to be drawn to him.

And, suddenly, he was leaning in. He didn't put much thought on it. Not that he was putting much thought on anything at the moment, for the matter, but he couldn't stop himself from doing so. He vaguely noticed Stan had stopped talking, obviously having noticed what he was doing, and, like that, they were kissing. It wasn't something one would consider romantic, per say. It wasn't sweet or innocent, but quick and desperate, instead, full of some sort of emotion none of them could really place, and, much importantly, it was very, very unexpected.

At first, Stan hadn’t really known how to react to the fact that he had his best friend of all times, who he also happened to have a not so subtle crush on currently had his lips on his own, and for a quick moment he just stood there, frozen, his eyes open and his body tense as Bill held his chin with his thumb and his pointer finger and kissed him, making Stan feel suddenly sober despite being almost as drunk as Bill himself, and painfully aware of their whole situation. And Bill might’ve noticed his shock, even in his sort of drunk state, because, shortly after that, he was pulling away, opening his eyes wide and staring at Stan as if already thinking of an apology for doing that, and Stan didn’t think twice before leaning in until their noses were touching and their lips were barely an inch away from each other’s, sending Bill a look that silently asked if it was okay if he did so before closing the gap between them completely once again.

And this time Stan knew what he was doing.

It was Bill’s turn to be a bit shocked, but he responded to the kiss almost immediately, and it was like, at that moment, time stopped briefly just for the two of them, and the kiss, passionate and eager, with Bill’s hands messily finding their way to Stan’s waist and for Stan to subconsciously wrap his arms around Bill’s neck, getting them into a rather weird position, wasn’t exactly what someone would actually plan as the perfect first kiss with someone, but none of them were complaining. And, much unlike Stan had thought (because, despite admitting it being absurdly embarrassing, Stan had thought about kissing Bill a lot more than just a friend should), he hadn’t screwed it up by overthinking it. In fact, he had thought about nothing as it went on, as if kissing Bill Denbrough had turned the rational part of his brain off and left him on pure instinct and luck, which felt more exciting than he would’ve thought, probably because he tends to overthink about overthinking most likely way too much.

And shortly after they pulled away gasping for air from the very unexpected yet much appreciated kiss, Stan felt himself actually noticing his surroundings again, and, like that, the world was much bigger than it was just a few seconds before. Slowly, Stan returned to his senses (as much as he could).

Bill did not.

And before Stan could even ask him if everything was okay (because it didn’t look like he was doing so great at the moment), Bill simply passed out in his arms.

_Great timing._

* * *

  
**[4:15 AM]**

Stan helped Bill out of the uber he’d called for them with some difficulty, and walked a few steps before he mentally prepared himself to deal with whatever was going to happen, and knocked on the Denbrough residence’s front door, helping Bill stand still in his spacey state as he waited for one of his parents to answer it, already thinking of what excuse to give them to justify their son’s state.

A few steps were heard before Zack Denbrough unlocked the door, his eyes still a bit shut from, understandably, been sleeping, and glared at the two boys in front of him with a raised brow, as if to indicate he wanted an explanation, and he wanted it now.

“Mr. Denbrough I’m so sorry this is my fault, I-”

“Stanley, there’s no need for this. We both know it’s not your fault.”

“No, but I could have stopped him if I wasn’t-”

“Stan, th-thanks, but you can’t just tuh-take the b-b-blame for this,” Bill said.

“Can I help him upstairs, Mr. Denbrough?”

“Sure. You can stay the night if you’d like,” Zack said, shrugging his shoulders, because the two were friends for so long they didn’t even ask to sleep over anymore, they just did it whenever they wanted to, knowing their parents would have no issue as long as they were at each other's.

Stan helped Bill walk upstairs, trying his best to not make much noise as he knew it was really late and so Mrs. Denbrough was most likely sleeping, as Mr. Denbrough had probably been too, before he had to get up to get the door. Stan didn’t care the slightest about waking them up, but knew it was best to keep Bill as away from trouble as possible.

He opened the door before them and they entered into Bill’s room, where they had had countless sleepovers in which none of them actually fell asleep before at least four am, both too excited about talking to each other about just anything to even think about sleeping, despite being tired. Where they had shared secrets and confessions and cried and laughed so, so many times.

They both sat by the edge of Bill’s bed in silence for a while, none of them knowing what to say, both avoiding eye contact the best they could. Stan had his eyes glued to the bedroom wooden floor, focused on that one stain they both made when they were twelve and tried to paint their nails with Bill’s mother’s blue nail polish in secret, despite having no idea how to even do it. Needless to say, it didn’t end up really good. When they were done with their poorly executed yet god intentioned tries at painting each others nails successfully, they accidentally spilled the nail polish on the ground without realizing, and they both panicked so bad about Bill’s mom finding out the two boys had not only taken her nail polish without asking, but had ruined the floor with it that they turned to the first solution they thought: nail polish remover. They just messily poured some of it on the floor and rubbed it over the light blue stain to try and get rid of it, which they did. And so, sighing in relieve, they both turned around and proceeded to remove the nail polish off their own nails.

They didn’t know the remover would make an even worse stain until Mrs. Denbrough barged into the room about an hour later and asked them about it, and they couldn’t think of an excuse that was good enough to cover the truth up, so they just told her, looking at their feet the whole time.

Mr. Denbrough didn’t care about the stain. But he did care about the fact that his son wanted to use nail polish, and made sure to tell him very specifically that was something he was not allowed to do.

At the time, Bill didn’t know what ‘fag’ or ‘queer’ meant, but that day he learnt that those were things his dad did not want him to be. Stan just stood there in silence.

_He knew what those words meant._

Stan was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Bill calling his name, and looked up to face him for the first time after they’d entered the room.

“I’m tuh-tired. I’m gonna s-s-sleep, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Me too.”

Bill just nodded and got under the covers, taking off the jacket he was wearing and tossing it over to the other side of the room, making a mental note to put it in his closet the next day, while Stan climbed onto the top bunk that was once Georgie’s (because he’d always insist he was big enough for it) and got under the covers himself, too.

“‘Night, Stan,” Stan heard Bill mumbling, clearly just a few minutes from falling asleep.

“‘Night, Bill.” He said back, hearing Bill’s light snoring not much after, and closed his eyes.

And when they woke up the next morning, both terribly hungover, Bill wouldn’t remember a thing from the night before.

_Stan would._


	2. A Date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was an understandment between Stan and Bill that they were going to prom together. Mike Hanlon and Beverly Marsh weren't aware of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to actually write this. I had like terrible writers block for a while but hey! I'm back! Hope you guys like this. Please tell me what you think about it!

**[Jenkins Beach, Dedham, Maine. Friday. 6:40 PM.]**

 

“ _Beverly Marsh asked you to prom?_ ”

Bill shot a quick look at said girl across the bonfire. “Don’t loo-luh-look so surprised! But I th-think so?”

Stan frowned. “What do you mean you ‘think so’?” 

“Okay, she did. But I’m not g-going with her. I’m going with you, idiot!”

Stan felt both guilty and happy for that. And then he felt more guilty about being happy for it. He debated whether to say something snarky or thanking Bill, but he didn’t get the chance to do any of that because Mike Hanlon- Mike Hanlon, out of all people- approached him.

“Missed you at the library earlier today,“ he said, with that smile that could make you forget how to think.

“Uh, yeah. I, uh,” Stan cleared his throat, not sure what to say yet excruciatingly aware how much of a fool he was making of himself. “had… some other things… to do. But I’ll- I’ll be there on Monday, you know. In case you want to… talk? Or something?”

Mike laughed at Stan’s shitty-at-best attempts at forming coherent sentences. “Yeah, sure! I’ll be there.” With no rush, he walked back to where his best friend, Ben- a nice guy who both Stan and Bill shared a couple of classes with- was.

“Dude!” Bill whisper-yelled.

“What?”

“What the fuck was that? That was pathetic!”

“I didn’t know what to say!”

“How the hell did you get a guh-guy like that so into you anyway?”

“Fuck off. He’s not.”

“You cannot be that oh-obliv-“ He closed his eyes, taking a breath, and tried again. "Oblivious. Mike Hanlon was just fuh-flirting with you and you’re gonna pretend it didn’t hah-happen?”

“I’d very much like to, yeah.”

“Why is he even into you? You’re a pain in the ass. And a dumbass.” Bill smirked.

“Says the guy who rejected Beverly Marsh!”

“I didn’t re-reject her. I rejected her invitation to the dance. Clearly a very d-d-different situation.”

“Bull-shit.”

“In case you need some reminding, I did it so I could go with you, so you should be th-thanking me.”

Stan grinned. “That doesn’t make you any less of an idiot,” he commented, causing Bill to jokingly push him.

“You know even though we agreed to go to-together you can still go with Mike right? I mean he cuh-clearly wants to go with you.” Bill said. “For some reason,” he teased.

Stan rolled his eyes. “You don’t know that. And if you wanna go with Beverly you know very well you could’ve just told me, right?”

“You know that’s not it. I just don’t want you to miss out on going with luh-literally the hottest guy in the entire school because you feel like you nuh-need to go with me.”

“So you wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course not! You should ask him!”

Stan laughed. “Very funny.”

“I’d argue with you but I think he’s gonna ask you anyway so eh,“ he shrugged his shoulders, "why b-bother?”

“It’s almost like you’re more excited than me about this?”

“It’s ah-almost like you forgot what we’re tuh-talking about here?”

“Think Marsh will still wanna go with you?”

“Oh, she will.”

“That sounded… extremely creepy.”

“I’m just aware of how chah-charming I am.”

“I think ‘annoying’ fits you better.”

Bill lifted his middle finger at Stan as a response, making him laugh.

“Come on, it’s getting late,” Stan stated, brushing the sand off his shorts and standing up, offering his hand to Bill.

“Okay, mom,” Bill replied, taking his hand and standing up as well. “Bye guys!” He yelled to the rest of the people they were hanging out with, waving aggressively, and Stan did the same, only he didn’t make such a scene. 

They walked hand-in-hand to Silver. Bill didn’t think much of it and, even though Stan did, it’s not like he would mention anything about it. He didn’t mind it one bit, so it wasn’t like he was going to complain. Besides, friends hold hands all the time, and Bill was the one to not let go, so he had the right to enjoy that little moment, right?

Once they were in the car, Bill started the engine and turned the radio on, giving Stan his phone so he could choose the music.

“I’m tuh-trusting you with this. You buh-better choose wisely.”

“Come on Bill. It’s physically impossible for a bisexual person’s taste in music to be bad.”

“You talk a lot of bullshit, but this is  _bullshit_  bullshit.”

“You say that as if I didn’t know if you were the one to choose you’d just play Mamma Mia on repeat the whole drive home.”

“Mamma Mia is a gah-great song!”

“Until it comes on for the eight time.”

“You’re wuh-wasting time. Just choose a song! As long as it’s not Bon J-jovi or some shit.”

“I’m offended at the fact that you could ever think I’m in any way heterosexual,” Stan replied, looking up from the phone screen.

He didn’t realize he had been staring until Bill looked at him and asked: “Is there something on my feh-face?”

Snapping back to reality, still with the phone in his hands and Spotify open, yet to put on a song, Stan averted his look back to it, trying to make as little eye contact as he could. “What?”

“I asked if there’s suh-something on my face. You were staring.”

“Oh. Kinda dozed off. But don’t worry, your face has just as much stupidity on it as it did before.” 

“You’re hilarious,” Bill said with a deadpan tone.

Stan smiled as he finally thought of what song he should choose. Turning up the sound to maximum volume, he hit play. Bill immediately recognized the song, and soon they were both belting the lyrics to I Want It That Way at the top of their lungs.

 

**[Derry High. Monday. 3:08 PM.]**

 

When the last bell rang, all hell let loose as everyone rushed to get out as soon as they could, but Stan took his time to walk to his locker as Bill waited for him there like he did every day. He stood there smiling at Stan, who smiled back as he put his calculus textbook inside the locker and his chemistry and algebra ones in his backpack.

“Alright, I’m ready, let’s go.”

“What do you muh-mean ‘let’s go’?”

Stan only frowned his eyebrows as a sign of confusion in response.

“You’re not going anywhe-where. Mike Hanlon is w-waiting for you at the library.” Bill grabbed Stan by the shoulders and turned him to the way the library was.

Stan turned around to face Bill again the second he let go of his shoulders. “First of all, he’s not. Second of all, if you didn’t wanna hang out you could have just told me.”

“Why ah-are you avoiding this?”

“I’m not!”

“Prove it.”

Stan was really, really close to simply flipping him off and leaving, because what did he have to prove anyway? But then, again, it seemed that Bill just didn’t care, and Mike Hanlon was waiting for him at the library, so why not? 

“You know what? Okay. I’m going.”

“That’s what I’m tuh-talking about!” Bill cheered, and Stan turned around again, tugging on the straps of his backpack, and began walking.

“Stan!”

“What?”

“You’re still coming to my pa-place later, right?”

“I’ll think about it!”

“Very funny!”

“I’ll be there!” With that, he turned around one final time and continued walking, this time with a smile. 

Knowing Bill was standing there watching him go made him feel a little awkward.  Like betrayal of some sort. But, well, who was he fooling anyway? Bill didn’t care. The only thing bothering him was his own feelings, and it was about time he got over them. Or tried to. Or… something, at least.

The library wasn’t all that crowded, as usual. A couple of kids sat by a desk with flashcards and a laptop open in front of them, laughing as they went through the questions; a guy sitting on the floor between two shelves, nodding his head to the beat of whatever song he listened to on his blue headphones as he doodled something Stan couldn’t quite make up in a sketchbook-

“Stan! Hey!”  Mike was sitting on the floor between the shelves on the Historical Fiction section, a book Stan recognized instantly in his hands, making him smile as he walked towards him.

“The Goldfinch?” 

Mike smiled. 

Stan could definitely get used to that.

 

**[Derry High. Monday. 3:08 PM. Yes, Again.]**

 

“I’ll be there!” Stan yelled, and went on his way to the library, leaving Bill there, watching him as he walked. When he was gone, there was nothing left for him to do except to drive home on his own. 

He walked with no rush to the almost-empty parking lot, humming a song he couldn’t remember the name of to himself. He was only a few feet away from Silver when-

“Bill! Hi!” Beverly Marsh yelled with that voice that seem no never lose the excitement in its tone. 

Bill waved at her, smiling, and waited as she walked towards him. 

“How are you? Noticed Stan isn’t here. Did something happen?”

“Oh he- he has a duh-date. Or something lah-like that.”

“A date?”

Bill nodded, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

“Oh it’s just. Since you said you’re going with him to prom I though maybe you two were, like, together or something.”

‘Dumbfounded’ is probably the word Bill would use to describe how he felt when he heard that if he’ had the time to think about it.  Did she really think they were a couple? And why the fuck did he not mind it? He probably should have.

“We- we’re not! We’re just friends. I’ve nuh-known him since like foh-forever.”

“I didn’t mean to be rude or anything.  Sorry.”

“No it- it’s okay. About prom, actually, I was th-thinking if you would, um,  still be up to go with me? You don’t nee-need to. Of course.” He was quick to add the last part, knowing even bringing it up would probably be enough to make her burst out laughing at him.

“What made you change your mind?”

“It’s cuh-complicated. It’s not that I d-didn’t wanna go with you. It’s just- Stan and I had ah-agreed to go together and I couldn’t let him down. But it’s okay if you don’t wuh-wanna go anymore.”

“What changed?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, you turned me down for him. Why didn’t he do the same?”

“Well… he doesn’t oh-oficially have a date yet. But there’s this awe-awesome guy who’s obviously into him. He’s definitely gonna ask him. So I told him to foh-forget it and just go.”

“You’re an interesting person, Denbrough. I’ll go to there prom with you.”

Bill was genuinely surprised by the fact that she actually accepted. “Really?”

She smiled. “Really! It’ll be fun. No corsage though. They’re ridiculous.”

“Note taken.”

Bev just nodded. “See you around?”

“Yeah. See you around.”

With that, Bill watched as Beverly Marsh turned around and went on her way. He decided to do the same. 

The entire way home he spent with a strange feeling that he should be at least a bit more excited about the whole prom thing. 

Maybe he was just tired.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! So I was watching Love, Rosie for what was probably the fourth or so time a few months ago and the idea to write something based off it came to my mind. I took a long time to actually start writing it but I'm actually digging what I've planned for it. I hope you guys like this, and please, please, please, tell me what you thought or just interact with it in general! I'm really excited about this au and I just hope it doesn't flop lol. I'll shut up now.
> 
> You don't really have to have watched/read Love, Rosie to go through this tbh, so don't worry. But in my opinion it's a really nice story so if I were you I'd check it out!


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